It’s only a few months since we launched TNN – the TFF News Navigator. Now we open another new chapter, an online site “TFF Store & Donations.” Here you can do two things:
a) Buy TFF and related publications, the whole list since 1986.
b) Make donations to help TFF remain a free voice and become people-financed.
Our aim is to make it easier for you to buy our publications – books and research reports – and to donate money to our peace research and field work. While we are energetic on Internet, we still believe in the printed word; we also know that many thought it was too costly and time-consuming to acquire our unique peace publications (you can’t buy them anywhere else).
We also know that the foundation have thousands of supporters. We expect some of them to be willing to help us now. We must remain a constructive independent voice, and with donations from around the world, TFF can solidify its financial basis and, thus, achieve more results in a) research, b) field conflict-mitigation and reconciliation and c) outreach on Internet and e-mail services.
And rest assured:we won’t become a profiteering “dot-com’er.” We will remain a humanistic, idealistic “dot-org.”
Look for the book and the dove
The logo we have chosen for our new online site “Store & Donations” is a combination of a book with moving pages and a dove sailing in the wind. The first symbolises the publications you can buy; the other is a carrier of your donation for peace.
The publications cover a wide range:
peace theory, disarmament, (alternative) security, non-violence, conflict theory and resolution methods, reconciliation, post-war reconstruction and development, world order issues. There are numerous works on the UN, its peace work, and the necessity for reform and on UN peacekeeping. There are interesting historical pieces written when the Cold War ended and quite a few of our authors’ prediction have come true. And there are some 20 books, reports, peace proposals etc for the Balkans, including Kosovo, unique in perspective and scope. They combine solid scholarship with critical analysis and – always – constructive perspectives: what can be done? What could have been done? What must be done in the future?
Your donation can be of any size from 2 US$ and upwards. You can buy “shares” for peace and we offer examples of what a donated sum may help us do. Everything on TFF’s site is free and so is TFF PressInfos that you may already get in your mailbox. But we now suggest honour payments at the site: a small voluntary contribution you can make when you use our website, benefit from its articles and our services. Or simply: a “thank you” for the work we do for peace in global space and cyberspace, the thousands of unpaid hours we have invested to serve each and everyone who cares about peace.
Secure payment, easy navigation, and complete transparency
TFF Store and Donations is built with the most advanced and secure technology. Our partners are ProNet International, DesignExtend, Miva and WorldPay who already serve millions of clients. This online site is easy and quick to navigate and aesthetically pleasing like our main site.
TFF’s auditing partner is the internationally esteemed KPMG. It is your guarantee that your donation is spent according to best financial management practices and strictly in accordance with the foundation’s purpose. TFF’s site will tell how much we obtain in donations and sales.
And if you do not have or want to use credit card payment, the “Publications” section on TFF’s main site has been updated and streamlined. There you still make your order and a donation; we tell you how much to pay including postage and you pay via postal giro or bank transfer but not by cheque.
It’s so easy to browse, buy and donate online
Go to https://transnational.sandbox-alot.com/ and look for “TFF Store & Donations” – the book and the dove. Chose publications and donations, put them in your shopping basket, go to checkout and pay the items and postage with your credit card. No queuing up at your post office, no exorbitant bank fees, no time wasted. And the risk is at least as low as any other payment method.
This is our vision
Most of us pay tax. Some of it goes to weapons, satellites, covert actions, interventions, genocide and human rights violations. Consequently, socio-economic gaps widen day by day. While governments and business profit in various ways, ordinary citizens pay the price. Every time.
What governments and big business do for peace is far too little, and they spend so much more on everything related to violence. Those of us who work directly for peace should not go on begging for money from those who, in many cases, cause the problems in the first place. TFF would l,ike to receive a support from the Swedish government but we will not be dependent for our life on that.
Security and peace can and must be democratised. If we want a more peaceful, just, democratic and ecologically balanced future, we citizens who have the means must contribute, either by our voluntary work, by our professional skills and/or by our cash contributions. If you do and tell your neighbours, the good idea may snowball – but nobody is going to do it for us!
You can help make that dream come true together with TFF. Buy “peace shares” at a value of 2 US $ and upwards. This is concrete action with full accountability: You can always follow our activities on our website. Since 1986, TFF has experimented with a new type of organisation and with people’s diplomacy. Today it is a a creative, principled peacebuilder in the real world and in virtual reality. We do free research and action and practise free speech against violence and for peace. And we will in the future.
Who will benefit when you buy books and make a donation?
Neither you nor TFF will profit economically. But these three main categories will:
A) Our website visitors who are mostly students, NGOs, media and concerned citizens in at least 60 countries (100.000 per year).
B) Citizens and civil society in conflict regions where we do conflict analysis, -mitigation and reconciliation; in short, work for peace with peaceful means
C) People who read our publications, website articles and media columns; people who are reached by TFF PressInfo (curently 8500 directly), WIRE, Peace Browser and the users of TFF News Navigator, TNN.
D) Democracy will benefit. We believe in enlightened, pluralistic public debate and democracy in foreign, security and peace affairs – fields that tend to be monopolised by a few who wield power even over humankind’s existence. But we do not believe in being politically correct in their eyes.
How will we spend your money?
TFF is a shoestring operation with a network but no single full-time employed staff. The founders and TFF associates do the job without salaries. But we need funds for administration, copying, website development, for producing free services such as PressInfo and TNN. We need to pay rent, phones, fax, surfing, insurance, equipment, envelopes and paper. We have a webmaster and a student who assist us on an hourly basis. We care professionally about reporting to authorities, the bank and our public accountant; we do bookkeeping and handle your order expediently. Of course it adds up.
In addition, we need funds for missions to conflict regions, research projects, editing and printing of reports.
You are welcome to compare TFF’s output per dollar so far with any other NGO or state-financed research institute anywhere. We are truly Gandhian also in this respect.
With a little help from our friends
During the last few months 1400+ people in 63 countries have told us with their letters and signatures how much they appreciate TFF and how strongly they opposed the decision of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deprive TFF of its organisational support. Perhaps you are one of them? Perhaps you dispatched a donation, too? We are immensely grateful!
To everybody else: Please make a donation now! And tell others that TFF’s unique work in conflict regions and on Internet is worthy of a little help from friends and like-minded people worldwide.
We can only work miracles with your help!
